A strong maximum principle for the Laplace equation with mixed boundary condition (Q5940319)

It is given a comparison result for two solutions of the Laplace equation in a smooth bounded domain \(\Omega\subset{\mathbb R}^n,\) \(n\geq 2\) satisfying the same mixed boundary conditions on \(\partial\Omega=\Gamma_1\cup\Gamma_2\) \[ -\Delta u=f\quad \text{in} \Omega,\quad u=0\quad \text{on} \Gamma_1,\quad {\partial u/\partial\nu}=0\quad \text{on} \Gamma_2, \] \[ -\Delta v=1\quad \text{in } \Omega,\quad v=0\quad \text{on} \Gamma_1,\quad {\partial v/\partial\nu}=0\quad \text{on } \Gamma_2. \] It is shown that for \(f\in C_0^\infty(\Omega),\) \(f\geq 0\) the solutions \(u\) and \(v\) satisfy \[ u(x) \geq c v(x)\int_\Omega f(y)v(y) dy\quad \text{ in } \Omega. \] The result is in some sense a generalization of the Hopf lemma to the case of mixed boundary conditions, where the barrier functions is not given explicitely, but as the solution of the Laplace equation with a constant right-hand side and mixed boundary condition.